Archive - October 28, 2009

Joe & Azat by Jesse Lonergan (Turkmenistan 2005-07) is a graphic novel coming out next month. It is based loosely on Lonergan’s Peace Corps experience in the former Soviet Republic. This graphic novel is about an “American Joe” who finds in Turkmenistan a good friend, Azat, who is a Turkman dreamer. The novel is full of desert cab rides, vodka shots, secret girlfriends, and Turkman’s business schemes. Reviewers write that “Lonergan captures not only the bizarreness of living in a country where the president for life launches copies of his poetry books into space, outlaws gold teeth and renames the months and days, but also reveals that there is hope in seemingly hopeless situations.” Lonergan is the writer and artist of the novel and creates an “eternally optimistic and enthusiastic Turkmen who has an idealized view of America, plus grandiose dreams of business success and romantic love.” Sound familiar? Azat is a great character. . . .

RPCV Michael Meyer (China 1995-97) and author of The Last Days of Old Beijing: Life in the Vanishing Backstreets of a City Transformed, published by Walker & Company in 2008 has been named a recipient of a 2009 Whiting Writers’  Award, one of ten given this year. The award, worth $50,000, is given annually to ” writers of exceptional talent and promise.”  Mike, who will receive the award this evening, is leaving shortly for China to work on his next book. Whiting Writers’ Awards candidates are proposed by anonymous nominators from across the country. And the winners are chosen by a small anonymous selection committee of recognized writers, literary scholars, and editors, appointed annually by the Foundation.  The Foundation accepts nominations only from the designated nominators. This year’s winners include several who have just published or will soon publish a first book. Although some were born in such far-flung places . . .